Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice

Articles

Vol. 37, No. 2, May

INTRODUCTIONIn 1968, elected officials and bankers in Boston designed a mortgage program in the wake of the urban rioting that followed the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King. It was called Boston Banks Urban Renewal Group, or B-BURG, and the...

INTRODUCTIONAccording to recent Urban Institute estimates, 6.3 million more mortgage loans might have been made between 2009 and 2015 if underwriting standards prevailing in 2001, when lending was relatively safe, had been used. (Goodman, Zhu &amp; Bai...

INTRODUCTIONU.S. mortgage markets can be likened to a gigantic machine with many real and financial "moving pieces." These pieces move cyclically and are too many to be covered in a few papers. Table 1 lays out my understanding of the main parts of this...

INTRODUCTIONMortgage credit became less available with the onset of the Great Recession. The Federal Reserve's low interest rates and quantitative easing policies have kept interest rates at historically low levels. As such, lending should have increased...

INTRODUCTIONStarting in 2007, the United States experienced a sharp decline in home mortgage originations, leading to a serious overcorrection of credit. The situation is slowly improving, with mortgage originations on the upswing since first quarter...

INTRODUCTIONMortgage credit has become very tight in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Although experts generally agree that it is poor public policy to make loans to borrowers who cannot make their payments, failing to make mortgages to those who...

Vol. 37, No. 1, April

No one was more instrumental in founding the Boston College Third World Law Journal (TWLJ) than Professor Emerita Ruth-Arlene W. Howe-the faculty advisor to the Black American Law Student Association (BALSA) who helped students develop a journal proposal...

Vol. 36, No. 3, 2016

INTRODUCTIONIn 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, sitting en banc, vacated the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland's decision to grant summary judgment in favor of Fontainebleau Corporation on hostile work environment...

INTRODUCTIONOn February 2, 2012, David Ford McMurray placed his garbage at the curb for collection outside of his Hutchinson, Minnesota home, unaware that this routine act would eventually lead to his conviction and two-year sentence.1 Acting on a tip,...

IntroductionThe Beck Energy Corporation ("Beck Energy") is an Ohio-based oil and natural gas company that secured a permit from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources ("ODNR") Mineral Resources Management Division to drill a well on Joseph Willingham's...

IntroductionOn May 9, 1981, seventeen-year-old Gregory Diatchenko stabbed Thomas Wharf to death near Kenmore Square in Boston.1 A jury convicted Diatchenko of murder in the first degree and sentenced him to a mandatory term of life imprisonment without...

Vol. 36, No. 2, 2016

INTRODUCTIONDoes the United States Constitution limit a city's ability to terminate its citizens' access to water for essential needs? As long as some minimal procedures are in place, the answer is no. A constitutional right to affordable water for drinking,...

INTRODUCTION"It was the worst moment of my life," seventeen-year-old Nicole said, referring to the moment she discovered that her father had distributed photographs and videos of his repeated sexual abuse of her, occurring when she was between nine and...

INTRODUCTION"If a person wants to offend, it doesn't matter how close he is to a convenient place to find kids."1Starting in 2013, the railroad tracks in the area of NW 36th Court and NW 71st Street in Florida's Miami-Dade County became notorious for...

INTRODUCTIONIn midsummer 1977, the police of Homewood, Illinois encountered a dismal scene.1 A young woman with clothes and hair in a state of disarray was walking by the side of the road, claiming to have been raped.2 She was rushed to a hospital, where...

Vol. 36, No. 1, 2016

INTRODUCTIONThis article will offer a reading of the 2014 United States Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores1 that is both consistent with the Court's landmark 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges2 and which also affords some direction...

INTRODUCTIONOn average, there are over 33,000 men and women separated from their families and housed in immigration detention facilities in the United States.1 Most of these facilities receive scant attention because of their remote locales. Typically,...

INTRODUCTIONEarly one morning a few weeks into a new school year at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS), Anna, an eighteen-year-old first-year student, was found by her friends bent over a pool table at a dance hall ("The Barn") being sexually assaulted...

INTRODUCTIONLaura Symczyk worked as a nurse at the Pennypack Center ("Pennypack"), a medical and rehabilitative facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.1 Pennypack automatically deducted one half hour's worth of pay daily from Symczyk's paycheck so that...

INTRODUCTIONDale Arnold, an employee of Flambeau, Inc. ("Flambeau"), a Wisconsinbased manufacturer and distributor of industrial, commercial, and consumer plastic, went on medical leave in 2011 for treatment of his cardiomyopathy and congestive heart...

Vol. 35, No. 2, 2015

Abstract: The peace process between the Colombian government and the Colombian guerrillas provides a case study to examine the operation of a forgiveness law under international law. In 2012, the Colombian Congress passed a legal framework for peace,...

Abstract: This Essay describes the phenomenon of cultural bias in judicial decision making, and examines the use of testimonies and opinions of cultural experts as a way to diminish this bias. The Essay compares the legal regimes of the United States...

Abstract: All fifty states and the federal government have civil asset forfeiture laws that enable law enforcement agencies to seize property that they suspect has been involved in the commission of a crime. Although there are many benefits to the system,...

Abstract: On November 7, 2013, the U.S. Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ("2013 ENDA"), a bill that attempted to incorporate both sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of...

Abstract: Various health care providers offer patients medical credit cards that charge high rates of deferred interest. As the cost of medical care and patient responsibility for out-of-pocket costs continue to rise, patients have turned to medical...

Vol. 35, No. 1, 2015

Abstract: As the number of wrongfully convicted prisoners who are subsequently exonerated continues to rise, the importance of access to post-conviction relief also increases. Under the Illinois Post-Conviction Hearing Act, this access is restricted...

Abstract: This article proposes the formation of a new law school, the Holmes School of Law. The curriculum of the Holmes School would draw upon legal realism, particularly as articulated by Oliver Wendell Holmes. The proposed curriculum would focus...

Abstract: By the year 2020, almost all of the affordable housing units created by Sections 221(d)(3) and 226 of the Housing Act of 1937 could disappear. These units were created in the late 1960s in an effort to draw more private equity to the affordable...

Abstract: HIV/AIDS, an epidemic that continues to claim thousands of lives annually, disproportionately affects homosexual males, racial minorities, and low-income individuals. When HIV/AIDS first emerged in the 1980s, the virus was clouded by great...

Abstract: Many states have enacted fetal protection laws as a way of promoting fetal health and combatting the problem of in utero fetal drug abuse. These laws, however, unduly compromise the constitutional rights of pregnant women, implicating a woman's...

Abstract: With the pervasiveness of the Internet in students' lives, schools are frequently disrupted by their students' online speech, whether through threats of violence, cyberbullying, or discussion of self-harm. To combat and minimize these disturbances,...

Vol. 33, No. 3, 2013

Abstract: On July 24, 2012, in Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota v. Rounds, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, sitting en banc, considered the constitutionality of a suicide advisory portion of a South Dakota statute...

Abstract: On March 1, 2012, in Gaitan v. Holder, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that Oscar Gaitan, a citizen of El Salvador who was seeking asylum based on membership in a particular social group, did not belong to a group that...

Abstract: On March 22, 2012, in Cuffex rel. B.C. v. Valley Central School District, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that suspending a student for writing a wish to blow up the school did not violate the student's First Amendment...

Abstract: On July 6, 2012, in United States v. Kebodeaux, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act's registration requirements were unconstitutional when applied to the intrastate relocation...

Abstract: On June 9, 2012, in Emeldi v. University of Oregon, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a grant of summary judgment to the publicly-funded University of Oregon in a Title IX suit brought by a female Ph.D. student claiming...

Abstract: On January 4, 2012, in Contreras v. Attorney General of the United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that the Fifth Amendment due process right to effective assistance of counsel does not apply to immigration filings...

Abstract: On May 17, 2012, in Del Marcelle v. Brown County Corp., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit sitting en banc split three ways on what standard to apply in class-of-one equal protection cases. The judges were concerned about how...

Vol. 33, No. 2, Spring

Abstract: This Article introduces a category of women who, until now, have been omitted from the scholarly literature on the civil rights movement: northern white women who lived in the South and became active in the civil rights movement, while intending...

Abstract: Critics of the Voting Rights Act argue that the anti-discrimination law requires states to engage in unconstitutional discrimination, as state decisionmakers must be conscious of race in order to ensure that voting policies do not weaken minority...

Abstract: Mercury amalgam dental fillings have been used for over one hundred and fifty years in hundreds of millions of patients around the world. In the past two decades, scientific evidence has shown that mercury fillings have harmful effects on human...

Abstract: Since 1979, Congress has prohibited the Peace Corps from funding Volunteer abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment of the Volunteer's life. This approach directly contrasts with domestic abortion policies, such as Medicaid...

Abstract: The United States Supreme Court made one of its most controversial decisions in recent memory in May 2011. Brown v. Plata involved a class action by inmates in California who alleged that their Eighth Amendment rights had been violated because...

Abstract: The jury system is intended to instill fairness and increase confidence in the American legal system as a whole. Despite this goal, widespread discrimination remains in jury selection procedures. In order to adequately protect both a defendant's...

Vol. 33, No. 1, 2013

Abstract: Since 2005, California civil courts have effectively abandoned the "age of consent" set by former California statutory rape law and, arguably, encoded in current penal code sex crime provisions. In declaring that California civil law may credit...

Abstract: Although men and women enter law school at the same rate with similar credentials, studies demonstrate that men consistently out-perform women in law school. This Article examines whether the performance gap present at other top law schools...

Abstract: Competing interests and values collide at the intersection of public health, international trade, and intellectual property. Although highly successful in securing rigid patent protection provisions in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects...

Abstract: On November 21, 2011, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law House Bill 3808, An Act Relative to the Commercial Exploitation of People. Before the bill's passage, Massachusetts was one of only three states that did not have a...

Abstract: In 1966, in Miranda v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court sought to mitigate the inherently coercive atmosphere of custodial interrogations to protect victims from involuntary self-incrimination. In analyzing custody for Miranda purposes, courts...

Vol. 32, No. 2, 2012

IntroductionLaw schools have a clear mission, one would think. Even if the American Bar Association did not insist upon it, any given law school would acknowledge its commitment to "prepare[] its students for admission to the bar, and effective and responsible...

Abstract: Law schools strive to teach students to be practice ready. That noble goal, however, is not enough. Because of the powerful role that lawyers play in society, educators must also teach students to be "justice ready." Justice ready graduates...

Abstract: Clinical legal education is garnering more attention as a vehicle for providing the training required to graduate "practice ready" lawyers as law schools face economic concerns and increasing expectations from the legal market. To create a...

Abstract: The premier strength of legal education resides in its dual identity as an academic department of a university and a professional school training future practitioners. This dual identity, which gives law school its unique blend of the intellectual...

Abstract: Critics of clinical legal education often malign its expense and look to clinical budget cuts as the primary means of reducing costs in legal education. This narrow focus, however, ignores the important function that clinical legal education...

Abstract: Many law school clinics presume a "social justice" mission-that is, representation of the indigent and under-represented about poverty law issues-as the only legitimate goal for clinic clients and matters. This Article contends that social...

Abstract: Social justice remains relevant in teaching clinical legal education. The clinical legal education model teaches the basics of lawyering not otherwise taught in law school: a practical understanding of the practice of law, how to deal with...

Abstract: State foster care systems are forcing many foster children to take high dosages of dangerous, mind-altering psychotropic medications. State actors have little medical background for each child and have limited time to diagnose disorders, thereby...

Abstract: Following the murder of Rachel Morningstar Hoffman-a 23- year-old college graduate-Florida passed "Rachel's Law," which established new guidelines for the police when dealing with confidential informants. Immediately prior to its enactment,...

Abstract: Queer youth are in a precarious position. In comparison to their heterosexual peers, queer youth are disproportionately punished in the criminal justice system, and they may be more vulnerable to being prosecuted for statutory rape. They may...

Vol. 32, No. 1, 2012

With the publication of this volume 32, the Boston College Third World Law Journal changes its name to the Boston College Journal of Law &amp; Social Justice. The staffand editors believe that the new name more accurately reflects our mission and scope....

Abstract: While there are relatively few cases from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that mention Muslims or Islam, an analysis of these cases discloses three common themes. First, Islam was seen as a decidedly non-American religion. Second,...

Abstract: The Supreme Court's decision in Padilla v. Kentucky includes within the Sixth Amendment's right to the effective assistance of counsel advice on immigration, but still falls short of attaining fundamental fairness and legal professional responsibility....

Abstract: There is a growing practice of separating immigrant children from their deportable parents. Parental fitness is no longer the standard with regard to undocumented immigrant parents. Increasingly, fit undocumented parents must convince courts...

Abstract: The procedure known as "knock and talk" allows police to approach a dwelling, knock on the door, and ask questions of the inhabitant with the goal of obtaining entry into the dwelling. This is a popular policing technique because probable cause...

Abstract: Domestic violence is a pervasive problem in American society. Undocumented immigrant women suffer disproportionately from spousal abuse due to language and cultural barriers. Undocumented domestic violence victims often do not know how or where...